More than a decade into his NBA career, Joel Embiid finally appears ready to change his approach to the regular season.
In years past, Embiid would needlessly push through injuries. Last season alone, he suffered an ankle injury in the first quarter of a game against the Toronto Raptors a few days before Christmas, but he played through it to keep his 30-10 streak alive. He wound up missing the Sixers' next four games.
Two weeks later, he did the same thing against the New York Knicks. He suffered a knee injury that would cause him to miss the next three games, but he wound up playing 36 minutes in the blowout loss to run his 30-10 streak to 15 games.
In late January, after facing another round of "ducking" allegations from Denver Nuggets fans and media members alike, Embiid returned prematurely against the Golden State Warriors after appearing to tweak his knee a few days prior. He hobbled around the floor all night and wound up suffering a meniscus injury late in the game that sidelined him for the next two months.
The NBA's new 65-game minimum for certain awards -- including Most Valuable Player -- seemingly contributed to Embiid's decision to play through injuries last year. The reigning MVP was the clear early front-runner to repeat prior to going down.
"I have a pretty good chance [at another MVP]," Embiid told ESPN's Tim Bontemps in late December. "I mean, if I have a chance to be in the conversation, why not? I want it all. I'm not shy about it. I'm not going to sit here and be like, 'Oh, I don't care about this.' Anything that I can get my hands on, I want it."
That experience last season appears to have been a wake-up call for Embiid. At media day, he said that his top priority this season is making it to the playoffs healthy, even if it comes at the expense of individual accolades.
"[Team president Daryl Morey] would tell you this: As soon as we lost last year, I texted him and I was like, 'We've got to do whatever it takes to make sure that, in the postseason, I'm healthy,'" Embiid said. "This year, there's no agenda -- All-Star, All-NBA, there's none of that. It's whatever it takes to make sure that I get to that point and I'm ready to go. For basically every single year of my career, I've been hurt in the playoffs. I think that's the goal. It's all about doing whatever it takes to get there."
That sounded great -- and long overdue! -- but Embiid wouldn't be the first player to make pledges on media day that he quickly broke once the season began. Media-day comments are like New Year's resolutions in that regard. However, ensuing reporting has confirmed that managing Embiid's health throughout the grind of the 82-game regular season is an organizational priority this year.
During media day, Morey said the Sixers were "going to be very smart" about how they managed Embiid throughout the season, as they were focused on "April, May, June." He recently told Bontemps that "part of being smart about it is having Paul [George] and Joel probably not play many back-to-backs, if any."
Embiid also plans to continue wearing a brace on the left knee that he injured in January, according to Bontemps.
"It's the right thing to do, and the right thing that's going to give me the support for the rest of my career," Embiid said. "For me, it's a mental thing. I hated it. [But] I started telling myself, 'OK, I have to do it, that's the only way they're going to let me play. ... It might not look as good as it used to, with the jab or the pull-up and all that stuff, but it'll still work."
The Sixers have already ruled Embiid out for the remainder of the preseason, which ESPN's Shams Charania described as "part of the new normal" for him.
"I'm told it's gonna include periodic time off for him during the course of the season," Charania said. "It's gonna include regularly scheduled checkups for Joel Embiid throughout the course of the season. I'm told he is not worried, he is not concerned about any accolades this season. I'm told he is not concerned about the 65-game limit for the All-NBA team or MVP. He only wants to be 100 percent healthy for when he has not been, and that's the playoffs."
That may sound like the obvious thing to do, but it's a marked departure from how both Embiid and the Sixers approached last season.
"It's not like there's been a whole lot of really thinking about when he's gonna play, when he isn't," head coach Nick Nurse told reporters in early January. "Our stance, I think [Sixers VP of athlete care Simon Rice's] stance, I think Joel's stance, is he's gonna play. He's gonna play."
Not anymore, it seems.
Granted, the Sixers' offseason acquisitions have helped in that regard. Effectively swapping out Tobias Harris for Paul George gives the Sixers a legitimate second star alongside Tyrese Maxey in the games that Embiid does miss. Bringing back Andre Drummond should help the Sixers avoid getting annihilated whenever Embiid misses time, which famously hasn't been the case throughout his NBA career. (Does anyone else have Embiid's on/off splits from the Raptors series in 2019 permanently seared into their brain? Just me?)
At media day, Embiid said that he felt inclined in past years to play through injuries because of how quickly the team fell apart without him, but that isn't the case this season.
"My job this year and what I really want to focus on is empowering these guys," he said. "I will do it when I have to. If that means I'm going to have to score some points at some point, then I'm going to do it. But most of the time, I really want to focus on really letting the game come to me.
"I think in previous years, I've had to do it because we didn't necessarily have the manpower for me to kind of take that step back and put us in a position to win. But I feel like this year, with the guys that we added -- Paul, [Maxey] taking another step, Caleb [Martin], Guerschon [Yabusele], Eric [Gordon] ... we added a lot of guys. Kyle [Lowry] is back. That's my job this year, and then really fit in when I'm needed."
That's a testament to the work that the Sixers' front office did this offseason. Had they not hit a clear home run with their acquisitions, Embiid might have been more reluctant to embrace this load management plan.
Either way, this change was long overdue. Better late than never, though.